Meta

Archives

Glinting in the winter morning light, freshly varnished and perfectly manicured nails drummed on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar. They were exactly the same shade of Vreeland red as the magazine with a laughing Kate Hudson on the cover. She was unaware of this little serendipity of color as she looked out over her vast living room to the snow dusted terrace that hung twenty eight floors above 5th avenue.

New Years Eve morning. L’Ascension by Olivier Massiaen was playing on the radio. She sighed, and flipped open Harper’s Bazaar. A beautiful girl with a perfume bottle, The page turned. “Kate Hudson gets festive in this season’s hottest styles. Welcome to Holiday Glamour……” And indeed the actress looked very festive and hot and stylish and all the rest. Turned page. Chanel models in Chanel, Page on to Dior bags followed by Louis Vuitton. A blond having too much fun being a blond in Michael Kors. The smile that made Julia Roberts a mega star smiled over her shoulder from the page for Lancôme. Still a pretty woman. Austere Armani, proud Prada, Gucci Gucci Gucci. Any other day it would have been fun, like it always was. Magazine meandering usually ended up in a trip down 5th to Bergdorf, then Barneys and always Bulgari for a bauble. She tossed the magazine aside and sank back into the silk over stuffed pillows of her now back in style Michael Taylor sofa.

Another Sigh. The sun shifted and a beam bounced off the ice on the terrace banister, glance a crystal on the chandelier and hit the facets of her pale violet diamond Deco inspired engagement ring. All twelve of the flawless carats caught fire. She lazily wiggled her ring finger and watched Tiffany & Co. dance within the stone. She pushed against the pillows, rose up from the sofa and tightened the sash on her Stefano Pilati silk robe.

The deep pile of the Nepalese rug caressed her toes as she sauntered to the terrace doors to look out to the West over Manhattan. She had hours to get ready before dinner at the Waldorf Astoria. Hours to think. The trees in the park encrusted from the ice storm the night before looked like a Swarovski forest from Doctor Zhivago. Beautiful and cold, it looked as if there were wolves down there howling at the silver plated sky. Only last month she had been warm in San Pancho under the November sun on the Nayarit coast of Mexico. She met Jane and Earl Miller and fell in love with them when she went to stay at their little hotel. Getting to know them as she lounged by the pool at Roberto’s Bungalows was when it began, slow and steady and building over Thanksgiving and into December. The realization that she wanted what they had. She couldn’t put her finger on just what made their marriage seem authentic and real. But she knew now that she would not find that kind of love staring at her across the well appointed table at the Waldorf on New Years Eve.

Late in the afternoon as she applied the finishing touches to her make-up she felt terrible for what she was about to do. She knew he would not understand, she understood that he thought he loved her. She realized nether he or she had any idea what love was really about. Finished dressing by five-thirty she called for her car, put the engagement ring into its box and into her purse. There was only one thing more to do. She looked at the array of perfumes on her vanity. She picked up the small unassuming bottle of Au Delà and applied it to her wrist and neck. The old world yet modern beauty of the perfume enfolded her, comforted her, and promised of life to live beyond tonight. It whispered very softly just behind her ear “…the beyond.” She smiled for the first time, just a tiny hint of a smile really. After Auld Lang Sine she would be free to find out who she really was.

Au Delà by perfumer and artist Bruno Fazzolari is something very special. I first smelled it along with the other perfumes of his initial launch into the perfume world last March at San Francisco Artisan Fragrance Salon. You can read about that event in my post, “Meeting The Magicians ~ SF Artisan Perfume Salon 2013”.

Au Delà immediately struck me as a fabulous perfume that recalled the great days of the house of Dior in the early 50’s. It is so reminiscent of such beauties as the old original Miss Dior. Not the silly girl she has become today in her reformulations but the beautiful confident woman she was at the dawn of post war glamour. I have to give credit to Hilary Randal who was the one to pinpoint for me what I was smelling in that bottle of Au Delà that day back in March.

Bruno has in his collection all of which was released in 2013, Lampblack, Jimmy, Five, Monserrat, It’s Better Not To Worry Abut It and Au Delà. Each are exquisite and should be explored by any and every perfume lover, but for me Au Delà is the masterpiece of the line. It is the goddess in a bottle, the essence of French chic created by and artist who grew up in both in France and the United States.

This perfume was inspired by one of the major French composers of the 20th Century, Olivier Massiaen. And in this inspiration there is music, glorious music. To equate this fragrance to the inspiration just listen to L’Ascension by Massiaen and you have the tones and notes of this perfume.

(Au Delà is right for any woman with the slightest chic)

It opens with a simple clear, glowing note of coriander. This note is almost immediately obliterated by an unfolding song from a beautiful jasmine that is wreathed with Neroli and orange blossoms. This plays its melody with increasing sensuality as it is aroused by the arrival of the base notes of Amber, Oakmoss and something magical created by Bruno known as Immanence. Immanence is a fantasy note that is as ephemeral as a dream and as real as fairy dust. It is the God note that encompasses everything and exists in all creation. It is there in the base of the perfume and gives it wings, shimmering wings on which to fly.

(Au Delà is perfect for a man with great personal style)

This Chypre is indolic, intoxicating and inspiring. It loves to live on the skin of both men and women and in so doing finds the essence of male or female sensuality in the meeting of perfume to flesh. Since its release Au Delia has won both the Gold Medal for Top Artisan Perfumer at the International Artisan Fragrance Awards and the Gold Medal at the San Francisco Artisan Fragrance Salon.

I found this award winning perfume to be sublime with a respectable sillage and good longevity. You can find it at Bruno’s Webpage and at Tigerlily in San Francisco. Tigerlily is the first brick and mortar store to carry Bruno Fazzolari Editions. For a debut perfumer Au Delà is exceptional and I look forward to watching Bruno Fazzolari’s journey as an up an coming perfumer.

The seven hills at sunset, a swarm of reeling starlings black against the amber sky. The sounds of voices from high windows in narrow streets are like battling arias from an opera by Verdi. Hundreds of Vespas beep a high urgent call as they careen past the Vittorio Emanuele II monument to shoot down the Via Imperiale at top speed toward the Coliseum and a night of fun. In the museums you see faces in stone thousands of years old. Faces of men and women of astonishing magnificence and authority, only to step out into the sunlight and see the same faces warm and alive and in the flesh. Every where you turn there is beauty. Beauty in color, textures, architecture, music, smells, sounds, tastes. This is a city that is more about being in the moment and alive than any place I know. Welcome home, welcome to Rome. Benvenuti a Roma!

Envy by Gucci is an intense experience. Like your first trip to Rome, it like the Eternal City is layered beautifully, with the smells of food, and gardens all rich aromas of red Italian wines. Florence smells like expensive warm leather,Venice smells of sharp crisp sea salt and grappa. But Rome is unique and Envy takes me back to Rome every time I put it on.

The oriental ginger, incense, amber, patchouli, along with anise, nutmeg, gives it a gourmand glamour. The deep sensuous musk, Cedar wood and cardamom bring in the feeling of the Borghese gardens on a steamy roman summer night. The color, did I mention the beautiful color of the juice? It is arrestingly beautiful, like the new green of the sycamore trees in early spring along the Tiber. You could get lost in the fresh promise of that sycamore green.

Envy is a stunning masterpiece that does not disappoint in the areas of silage, projection and longevity. Lasts on me around 8 hours, it really delivers.

I am just swept away by this elegant and supremely Italian fragrance that is as gorgeous as the men and women of Rome. Ché bella città, quello che un buon profumo!

BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD
Vickie Lester knows a few things about Hollywood, past and present. One of my absolute favorite must read blogs in town. (don’t mention that I told you but her real name is Esther Blodgett.)

FRAGANTICA
Find a fragance, make friends, write reviews and connect with other frag heads!

FRAGRANCE TALK
Cubby’s site and just about the best online reviewer there is. His video reviews are the BEST!

Garance Doré
Brilliant, warm, sweet and funny, but beyond all that a great photographer of fasion and video blogger.

GRAIN DE MUSC
Denyse Beaulieu’s fabulous blog. Her book The Perfume Lover about the creation of Saville A L’aube by L’Artisan Parfumur is a must read that is next on my must read list. Thanks Katie Puckrick for turning me on to Denyse’s blog.

RIVIERA NAYARIT GRINGO
My friend Earl Miller’s blog about life in the magical town of San Pancho Mexico. Check it out and if you are heading down there stay at Earl’s Roberto’s Bungalows.

SCENT TRAILS
The Frunkinator’s great site for locating perfume brick and mortar shops around the globe. Also listed are perfume events. Great Site!

SCENTRY ~ Perfume Stories
In the words of its Editor, “We feature creative people from all over the world, and the things that connect them with perfume: fantasy, sensuality, vision, and inspiring stories.

SMELL AND TELL
The adventures of a 20 something in Romania and an obsession with fragrances. Very interesting.

SMELLY THOUGHTS
Freddie Albrighton the up and coming l’enfant terrible of perfume blogging! He is brilliant!

TOP 10 FRAGRANCES
“A blog for perfume lovers by perfume lovers.” Jasper Buckingham and his wife who are based in France have a really fine fragance blog. check it out and Jasper’s YouTube channel as well.

WHAT MEN SHOULD SMELL LIKE
From somewhere south west of Tahiti comes this great blog by my buddy Clayton. You are going to thank me for taking you to the land down under.

ZGO Blog
The wonderful and fragrant San Francisco perfume and candle shop now has a fabulous blog!

HAYDRIA PERUMERY
My friend Haydrya has a fabulous perfume house. Perfumes inspired by the glamour decades of the 20th Century from the 20’s to the 60’s. Perfumes handmade with love. Such wonderful names as “Tainted Love”, “L’Eau Exotique, and “Black Mamba”. Check it out!

HISTORIES DE PERFUMS ~ PARIS
A really exciting house…they even make a new perfume “Peter and Alice” that comes in a cupcake flacon. Look for the new “Veni, Vedi, Vici” line as well. Cardamon and Julius Caesar!

HOUBIGANT ~ Paris
The oldest perfume house in existence, founded in Paris in 1775. Marie Antoinette loved their perfumes so much that she had her coachman stop at the perfume house during her attempted escape from Paris in 1789. The house be came the perfumer to royalty

ONE SEED PERFUME
A great little niche house with a heart as big as the Outback. ” One Seed donates 10% of profits to organisations close to our heart, including Collective Shout and Australia Hope International.”

PK Perfume
Paul Kiler is a California Perfumer who creates wonderful scents inspired by the perfumes of the early 20th Century. All formulated from the best natural materials available to him.

SHAY & BLUE ~ LONDON
A brand new perfume house created by ex Senior Vice President of Chanel and former Global General Manager of Jo Malone Ltd and up and coming perfumer Julie Massé . Looks really interesting to me.

THE 7 VIRTUES ~ Perfumes
The 7 Virtues Beauty Inc. is a Canadian company that believes we must flex our buying power to empower families in countries that are rebuilding. In one instance for the Noble Rose perfume they are turning drug poppies farms in Afghanistan into rose farms

TOM FORD ~ FRAGRANCE MEN
The Ellegant and expensive Mr. Ford. His talents are many from fashion to film. His nose is beyond compare.

WEIL PARFUMS
They started out as furriers in 1912. First perfumes were to scent the fur coats.

PERFUME SHOPPING

AEDES DE VENUSTAS ~ NEW YORK
Aedes de Venustas is a great place to shop for scent in New York. They stock the impossible to find you have been searching for high and low. Just GO!

HOUBIGANT ~ Paris
The oldest perfume house in existence, founded in Paris in 1775. Marie Antoinette loved their perfumes so much that she had her coachman stop at the perfume house during her attempted escape from Paris in 1789. The house be came the perfumer to royalty

THE 7 VIRTUES ~ Perfumes
The 7 Virtues Beauty Inc. is a Canadian company that believes we must flex our buying power to empower families in countries that are rebuilding. In one instance for the Noble Rose perfume they are turning drug poppies farms in Afghanistan into rose farms

ZGO San Francisco
The most exciting new personal scent store in San Francisco. World class Perfumes, Candles, and bath soaps. Drop in for a great olfactory experience and tell them Lanier from Scents Memory sent you.

Blog Stats

253,322 hits

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.